Ball joint



Jan. 5 1926. I 1 568 49 I L- D- WOODRUFF v.

BALL jJQINT Filed June 8. I921 a nf 'MX mam wzu'mlz Patented an. 5,1926.

' mommis n woopaurr,

v BALL Application filed June 8,

To all whom it may concern." I

Be it known that I, LEONIDAS D. \VooD- RUFF, a citizen of the UnitedStates, residing at St. Louis, in the State of Missouri, have, inventedcertain new and useful Improvementsin Ball Joints; and I do herebydeclare the following tovbe a full, clear, and exact description of thesame, reference being hadto the accompanying drawings, forming part ofthis specification. This invention relates toa ball joint, and has forits. principal object the provision of a ball joint in which greataccuracy of fit of the contact surfaces is unnecessary since in thepresent joint means entirely separate and distinct from the twopositioning. gaskets is supplied to prevent the passage of steam to thespace between the two po-- sitioning gaskets or between the ball properandthe sleeve or rear section of the body of the joint. A. furtherv andimportant object of the present invention lies in the provision of-arubber-gasket which may be .cut from. ordinary sheet ackingand need notbe cutto an accurate t and which, because of the absence of provision ofmeans with pinching action for holding it in place, will have anexceptional length of life. A further object of the present inventionlies in the provision of aball joint employing: a' pluralityv ofpositioning gaskets and an ad-. ditional non-leaking gasket, the jointbeing characterized by'the ability to remove. anyone or more of thethree gaskets without separating. either the ball or the body from itsrespective piping. F urther-andvrelatively less important'objects ofthefpresent invention will be apparent from the followingspecificationand are particularly pointed out in the claims and include,among other things, the provision of means integral with the body of thejoint for preventing a forward move ment of the ball into the body; atwo-piece gasket adapted to be removed from the'ball withoutdisconnecting same from its piping; the provision of a composite ironand brass ball; and, the provision of a floating gasket serving the:dual function of positioning and supporting the non-leaking gasket andguiding the'ball, being curved to: fit the latter.

In the ordinaryball joint the upper and lower gasketsar'e eachpermanently secured in'place wit ha result that wear soon causes aleakage,'no provision being made to pro- -tions in position andthrust..form of oint 1n accordancewithmyinvem 1921. Serial at. 475,848.

struction. While it is old to provide a rubber-non-lea-king gasket in aballjoint it is 60.

novel to provide such a gasket which shall be entirely free to turn ormove inanyLdirecfor an automatic take-up ofeither of the two gasketsusual in the ballT'oint contion-save' w'hen seated bythe pressure of thesteam; {-In all ofV-the old 'ball' joints that utilize .such a gasketthe life of the gasket is very-materially shortened by pinching itbetween two parallel faces of metal, usually at the outer periphery ofthe annular gasket.

reat disadvantage of the old style ball joint, in addition to theextreme- A further accuracy of fit normally required, is' that when theball portion is pushed forward away'fromits supporting seat the ballwill jam against the upper gasket and will leave .the normallysteam-tight permanent gasket and will allow steam to'escape. When anordinary type'ball joint is positioned with thereto'leakageof steamrarely occurs save when the ball, which normally hangs, is thrust upwardin which case the steam will,

the ;ball" supporting the piping attached of course, escape since thelower gasket 1 wears rapidly which causes -no' particular trouble aslong as gravity plus steam pres-" sure holds the ball against thesupporting gasket. The present joint, however, is intended to have amuch more varied and extensive use than merely' to suspend piping and isintended particularly for use to replace the flexible hose on railwayears so that it would be subjected to extreme varia-' A preferredducedneck '11 carries a serrated section 12," these'three partsbeingintegral and prefer-' ably made of a casting of malleable iron.

The outer two-thirds of the section 12 is roughened as by the serrations14 to afiord secure. means for holding a cast brass-wear portion '15.The malleable iron portion of the ball is first cast'and is thenpositioned in a mold'of the proper for'm'and the molten brass is pouredinto the mold to form a con on i ' to the chamber, 33 formed. byanannular tinuous spherical contour with the portion due to unequalexpansion of the metals has been experienced, due, it is believed, tothefact that the brass, which has a greater coefficient of expansionthan the iron, jams against the section 12 at the rear and expandsslightly at itsfreo forward end but is heldvinposition by the annulargrooves or serrationsi14. Theibody portionof the oint consists of twoparts, thesleevelG and body -17, the'latterhaving a threaded nipple 18,a nut portion 19'and a threadedlfianger20 which receives .the' largerthreaded portion 21 of; the sleeve and is provided with a shoulder 22 i'which forms .a stop'so thataa =-steam-tight oin't may .be formedcbetweenthe bodyand sleeve by inserting a small-ans nular gasket betweenthemembers 21' and 22, 7

these members being locked .in place bya cotter-pin ,24 passingthroughone of a plurality of perforated holes 25 ina small lip26-extending from the shoulder 22, thecott'cr pin beingheld betweenadjacentribs 27; the cotter pin and rib structure being old.

inthe art and forming no part of the pres? ent invention.

An; internal xinward directed, angular flangei30 =is integral Wlth=th6ibody 17 and is approximately, although preferably ki? exactly, radialwithrespect to the ball but surface. vided in this flange 30 to allowsteam, to pass groove in the body 17 The sleeve lG is merely an.annularring having an inturnedflange 33 which posi-. tions and supports .therelatively. stationary gasket 37. This retainingigasket 37 is pref-.

erably-madeqin two, half sections in order. -thatit may be removed fromthe joint with-: out the necessityof separating the piping.

from the ballsection. lnithe cylindrical recessof the sleeve, formedbyuthe' internal.

face 38 is loosely mounted a, floating gasket 40 which is beveledas at41 to prevent the rubber gasket 42 from being injured by be-H- ingforced to make: a, sharp angle-with the ball. rapid rate, it is notpreferable to curve the 'face41 as this would later cause anannularrecess into which therubber gasket 42 would, be forced.-,;The facev43,ofvthe floating gas-i ket 40 is curved on the section of a sphere as isthe similar face 44 ofthe relatively star =tionarygasket 37. 1

emb e s s et42m yb c fr m a sheetof ordinary packing and need not beparticu larlyaccurately cut, since its sole function is topreyentleakage between, the ball and the ,fioating gasket 40 and {between Sincethis member wears. at a fairly the -,s1)ace between: saidagaskets, 1:said. iadd, ti0na1 gasketbeingefree itO more in any;i.d-

ut an aa r ain-5 11s;ig sketr l ose ses:

the latter and the surface 38 of the sleeve, the rubber; gasket 42lyingtl -oosely the annular..,.chamber boundedsbyliithe flange-1 .30 ofthebodyand the threaded flange 21 of the sleeve, When ..steam ,press ureis admitted 7 to the joint it passes through the holes 31 to the chamber33 and drives the gasket 42 firmly against its seat in the sleeve 16 and.alsoi-firmlyiagainst the spherical surface of the ball and effectivelyprevents leakage at 7 either side of the-floating gasket- 40zf Dueto-the length of overlap of the gasket 42 to either side of the surfacesof the 'gasket 40, the gasket will continue to prevent leakage evenafter a great amount-iof wear of the ball, asthe gasket will followtheball as it wears. Since the gasket 42 is -'not'pinched,--

but is free tomovein its *chambe1wf33a it if will 110i? press againstthe1 ball unless-steam w is admitted and hen ce its length of -life wins be'many times greater than those-gaskets which are forced at alL timesinto- -contaotwith movingzsurfac'esi 5 i In Fig. 2 a modified-formof-ball section is illustrated, the -principaldifference beingthatthespherical portion-is entirely of malleable iron omittingthe -cast brasss; lwear surface shown an theperforated-dorm and also necessarily-omitting -tl1e:, advan tages gained by the= latter type,=-which are, 195 that the underside whichis in icontact with the retaining gasket37ihas a hardwvearing surface, while the top ladj acenti-to :theigasket- 40 has i a smooth brass -surface that will is curved on itsengaging face to a spherical.

A plurality :of orifices 311iS pro-v sit desiredwbut is iconvenient whenthe joint 2 1 is used in fiuid pressure-connections; as this, i lip actsasa stop engagingttheirigid iinnerm proyection. 30 of the #body. andprevents ether.

- piping i (replacing; :the: rubber steam hose ion 2 1 the end of the.passenger-car:)--from drag.-,. gin-g on the ground or strackand beinglupulled 0ff..fThis flange =50xalsozrelieves thee;v gaskets, from .anoblong. thrust iwhich migrhtz :1 otherwise clistort:then1 -.;It should;be noted 1 in this connectionhthatthes-rigid ,zinternal-ha;

fflange .30iacts as a -stopqto receive the-thrust,

the ball, *and means adapted to :ebe lplacedzn;

under pressure by '=.-steampassingzuthrough' the j oint,ifori;preventingeaccessiof zsteamqto '5 3 rection in the: iLbSQHGGrQf.--s te,a;mi pressure; 2. In ;a baLL-ij'pin a b ly-n b dymemea h r, ,afl at g ig ske i'lengagin-gz:is dab l an cL-held; in close yeontotrzwithn a d: bel a ly'o'i t p es ure 1 i vst rn;inma sing :thnough: tw

ing said ball, said last mentioned gasket being composed of two similarseparable sections, said additional gasket being free to move in anydirection in the absence of steam pressure.

3. In a ball joint, a ball member and a body member, piping secured tosaid ball member and-to said body member, a plurality of spaced gasketspositioning said ball member, an additional gasket on the outer side ofsaid gaskets and adapted to be acted upon by the pressure of steampassing through the joint to prevent leakage of steam to the spacebetween said first-mentioned gaskets, said additional gasket being freeto move in any direction in the absence each of, said secured to saidbody for securing in place gaskets may e removed from the joint withoutdisconnecting either the ball or the body from said piping. I

4. In a'; ball joint, a body, a ball, spaced gaskets between said bodyand ball member and a flexible gasket loosely mounted between said bodyand'said ball adapted to be held in place against one of the firstmentioned gaskets and the ball member by the. pressure of steam passingthrough said joint but in the absence of steam free to move in anydirection.

LEONIDAS D. WOODRUFR' askets whereby any of said pressure 30

